Speak up with Alpinstore

At Alpinstore, we are aware that we need to change things to preserve our planet. As part of the article "All eco-friendly: the eco-responsible initiatives of the Alpinstore team", we invited you to speak about your eco-responsible gestures that you adopt daily!

Today we are starting this section for the first time with Emeline! We let you read her article about her daily actions:

"I grew up in a flood of industrial products, with cereals from around the world in my breakfast bowl, ready-made meals defrosted for family dinners, followed by yogurts packaged in plastic pots and then over-packaged in a box.

At that time, we went to visit supermarkets every day and took the car at every opportunity, just to go to the local bakery. I remember that supermarkets had plastic bag dispensers at every checkout. Everyone could help themselves, it was plastic galore! I also remember that we ate meat at every meal and that we didn't even sort our waste. Everything went into the same bin! The bottle deposit system for glass bottles even disappeared during my childhood. The only gesture we made for the planet was to turn off the light behind us and limit our laundry. An unconscious madness!

Today, a political awareness has led to radical and important changes in our way of living, and fortunately for the planet and its future. Waste sorting and the elimination of plastic bags have been observed in recent years. Some have turned to a vegetarian or even vegan diet.

Current events have allowed many of us to take the plunge and implement beneficial actions for the environment.

For our part, we had just moved into our new home when the lockdown was ordered. It allowed us to refocus on these issues. Some actions had already been implemented for a few years, but we decided to go further. During the renovation of our new living space, we decided to install dry toilets to reduce our consumption of drinking water and compost these waste that will also nourish the soil. Our cats did the same with their litter by replacing the mineral one with wood chips, which can be integrated into the compost. We then installed a compost bin at the back of the garden, to degrade our vegetable waste and compost the vegetable patch that we also set up. The goal of this vegetable patch would ultimately be to produce our annual vegetable consumption and to be self-sufficient. Completely autonomously, since a rainwater collector was already in place. We just have to use the resources available on site.

Another major resolution was to further reduce our waste, eliminate all plastic water bottles that we consumed for sparkling water. This involves installing a system designed by GROHE, the Blue Home system that produces sparkling water directly from the tap, using Biogas cartridges available on rechargeco2.fr. But also to replace all industrial cleaning and cosmetic products with homemade recipes made from natural basic products. We took advantage of our available time during the lockdown to compile a collection of simple and easy recipes to facilitate this change.

We were already making eco-responsible efforts such as using a washcloth to remove makeup, brewing tea and herbal teas in washable and reusable fabric bags, shopping with our bags, using toilet paper in very large rolls (jumbo model), consuming filtered tap water, using ground coffee instead of pods which also allows us to recover it for a second use in the garden or in homemade cosmetic products (body scrub). For years we have chosen an eco-responsible electricity supplier, Ekwateur, which provides green energy.

Our purchases are reasonable, prioritizing local, seasonal purchases and products from organic farming. We also prioritize durable materials such as glass and metal and we prefer to buy in bulk. We buy our clothes from thrift stores and we repair what is repairable, thus giving objects a second life. We walk for most of our trips and are considering buying a hybrid car for our professional travels. We have reduced our meat consumption, which is too energy-intensive for the planet (see the documentary The Experiment, Eating Differently produced by ARTE). In addition, we have paid particular attention to our eco-responsible outdoor equipment for our activities in nature, in order to continue to reduce our environmental impact, even during our leisure time.

Reducing our ecological impact for the planet also involves using available local resources directly from nature that bring products from our wild plant foraging to our plate. We have been doing this for years. We cook vegetables from head to toe, nothing is wasted, everything is used. Plastic wrap has been replaced by recycled boxes for storing leftovers in the refrigerator and parchment paper has been replaced by a silicone mat for baking in the oven. Plastic straws have been replaced by washable and reusable stainless steel straws at will. Our cats now eat eco-friendly kibble, insect-based kibble (Tomojo, sold on altershop.fr). We have signed up for a solidarity purchasing network (the Hive that says Yes), to boycott hypermarkets and large distribution networks that only have profit in mind.

To conclude, I wanted to advise everyone to think about their purchases and respond to the logic of consume less, consume better. Everyone must realize that every gesture counts. For gifts, think of ethical gifts like the Masterbox thus encouraging French artisans and producers. Thank you for them and for the planet.

Emeline, a nature lover"

Thank you Emeline for your testimony, let's act together to preserve our environment.

If you also want to share your eco-friendly gestures that you do daily, write us an email at contact@alpinstore.com. You have all summer to give us your eco-responsible habits! In exchange for a few lines article (photos are welcome!), we offer you a €15 voucher, with no minimum purchase on a selection of products. (Excluding ongoing promotions)

In addition to the voucher, we will publish the most relevant initiatives on our dedicated eco-friendly space!